Taser death: stun gun fired 28 times

Civil liberties groups are demanding a more thorough investigation after it emerged a Queensland man who died during an arrest last week may have been tasered by police more than 20 times.

Queensland Police initially told the media the Taser was used up to three times when officers tried to arrest Antonio Galeano during a violent struggle at Brandon, south of Townsville, last Friday.

The 39-year-old collapsed and died a short time after being stunned by the 50,000 volt gun.

Data collected from the weapon reveals it was fired 28 times. The data does not reveal the target.

Further testing is being done but the police union is standing by the officer who fired the weapon.

On Monday, Police Minister Neil Roberts and Commissioner Bob Atkinson suspended any further rollout of the Tasers and ordered the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) to review the use of the gun.

Queensland police say the investigation into the man's death will be completed within a month.

Investigation

The Deputy Commissioner of Queensland Police, Ian Stewart, says it is not clear how many times Mr Galeano was stunned.

He told ABC Radio's AM program that police are trying to work out just how the Taser was activated each time.

"Whether or not they were in probe mode - where the weapon is actually fired and the probes are ejected from the weapon, or whether it was in stun drive mode - where the weapon is placed against a person or an object," he said.

He says there is an ongoing investigation into all of the circumstances involved in the incident.

"I am not going to talk about the specifics of that investigation, only to say that as a result of further information that came to hand from that investigation the review into Tasers has been commenced," he said.

"That is an independent review in terms of our ethical standards and jointly with the CMC in Queensland undertaking a review of our policies, training and monitoring of the use of our Tasers.

"The review is expected to be completed within four weeks and then obviously there is issues to do with the inquiry being conducted by the coroner, but the information that can be released will be released to the public."

Deputy Commissioner Stewart would not comment on whether Mr Galeano was handcuffed when he was tasered.

He says there are significant policies surrounding the use of Tasers and they are used only in serious matters.

"It is a serious use of force option which we make available, next only to the use of a service firearm, and the reality is that the use of Tasers actually saves lives," he said.

He says there is policy in relation to the number of times a Taser can be fired at someone.

"We do have policy in relation to this but it's situational, meaning that we ask our officers to reassess constantly their use of any force option available to them and that includes Tasers."

'Baffling data'

Queensland Police Union acting president Ian Leavers says it is hard to know exactly what happened during the arrest at Brandon last Friday.

"The reported results of the gun's data are baffling, concerning, and I believe are at odds with a number of other crucial pieces of evidence," he said.

"It should be remembered that there are a number of other crucial testing results that will shed more light on the likely cause of death."

Mr Leavers says Mr Galeano was extremely aggressive, armed with an iron bar and broken glass, and had harmed himself before officers tried to arrest him.

He says he is confident the officers involved have been honest and frank during the investigation.

"I've spoken to them at length - I spoke to them in Ayr - and I'm confident they told the truth," Mr Leavers said.

Mr Leavers has called on the State Government to immediately free up funds to install camera attachments on all Tasers.

"I believe at this point in time it is imperative that we have cameras attached to all Tasers because that will record each and every movement everything that happens - than there can be no doubt," he said.

Meanwhile, Queensland Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek says the Liberal National Party (LNP) is in favour of Tasers.

"We've always supported the police using Tasers, but clearly there's an investigation into the particular incident and I await that investigation with interest, the outcomes," he said.

"But clearly the police need to have non-lethal methods to use on offenders."